Amateur Gardening

A NEW nation-wide ban on products containing the toxin metaldehyde has now come into force. The ban was implemented by Defra from March 31, 2022, having been given the green light in March 2020 after experts highlighted the risks the chemical posed t

PONDS and water features are a great addition to any garden. They add a calming, soothing element for us and are a major attraction for wildlife. If space is tight or you are unable to create a pond yourself, there nothing stopping you from installin

I had been watching the shoots on my seed potatoes growing longer and longer as they lounged in their cradle-like egg boxes, soaking up the late-March sunshine. The weather had improved so I decided to plant early. Unlike those gardeners you see on T

IT isn’t just garden plants that are stirring now; houseplants that went dormant through the winter months are back in action too, growing well. It is time to start feeding them again, watering more frequently and, as windows are thrown open to let i

IT’S time for the cuckoo, although I’ve never heard one at Spring Cottage in the 16 years that I’ve lived here. To hear one I have to travel to a nearby nature reserve, but it wasn’t always so. In the 1950s cuckoos were ubiquitous and newspapers were

THERE is no real right or wrong way to water plants. However, small changes in technique could dramatically improve your results, it has to be said. Perhaps the commonest error starts when watering pots and trays that have just been sown. If, as is o

WINTER squashes are rampant, yield generously, store forever and taste delicious, so why on earth wouldn’t you grow them? Here are my hints for a bumper year. Winter squashes are part of the cucurbit family and botanically they belong to three main s

CLOSELY related to snapdragons (antirrhinums), the naturalised ivy-leaved toadflax (Cymbalaria muralis) are the true toadflaxes in the genus Linaria. I well remember my first encounter with a group of alpine toadflax (Linaria alpina) burgeoning from

WHEN I am an old woman I shall wear purple,’ Jenny Joseph promised in her poem Warning. ‘I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired, And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells, And run my stick along the public railings.’ Applying this

THOSE who by chance or design have streams, ponds or any moist places in their gardens are indeed fortunate, for a host of delightful plants can be grown in these areas with ease, and very little preparation of the planting sites is necessary. Many p

1 and 3 across Long, egg-shaped fruit of Solanum lycopersicum, often of Italian origin, and frequently canned for using in cooking sauces (4,6) 3 See 1 across 6 Form of dianthus, referred to as an old-fashioned ____ (4) 7 ‘____-in’: temporarily ‘plan

This word search comprises words associated with Her Majesty the Queen – and birthdays! They are listed below; in the grid they may be read across, backwards, up, down or diagonally. Letters may be shared between words. Erroneous or duplicate words m

AS the weather gets warmer, thoughts naturally turn to being outside in the garden and you suddenly realise the lawn needs attention. The winter weather can be harsh on grass, with frost, rain and maybe snow all taking their toll on it. If the draina

AT the weekend my young grandson, Jacob, aged 7, asked if he could look at my special seed box. I left him to it and a while later went back to see him. He had a large pile of seed packets, all with the longest use by dates so that, he said, he could

LOVE-LIES-BLEEDING’ is just one of many common names for the underused clan of annuals that botanists call Amaranthus. Another is ‘callaloo’ referring to the leafy types cooked like spinach in Caribbean cuisine. Then there’s ‘lady’s riding whip’ and

WE specifically created our pond to attract wildlife and while we haven’t had any frogs or newts yet (to our knowledge), the water and surrounding area are full of mini-beasts and some other not-so-mini critters. Snails, dragonfly and damselfly larva